If Mini and Max had been a real game of the SNES area, it for sure would have been an influential classic! I really hope someone takes this concept and fully expands on it even more!
2 things that sealed mini + max in my heart. 1. True curiosity freedom, I was discussing the "rat down a hole" mission on reddit. And between three of us, we had all done it in different ways. I had jumped down with a mould shroom, throwing it down before I hit the ground to bounce & negate fall damage, another person had brought a mind control microbe to float down, another had jumped while holding a floater! In any other "curiosity freedom" game, you would have been shown how to deal with a *fall damage* event, then be shown a huge pit. But in Mini & Max you are shown a huge pit, and it is up to you to work out how to deal with it. It's obviously scary for developers to hand over the reigns like that but it is something that needs to be done more. 2. The discorvery. When you're on your first run through you will find yourself in some random nook and discover a guy telling you to go somewhere, **somewhere** that is extremely important to the main quest. You feel like you have truly stumbled upon it through your curiosity. It's once you've completed the game and are just messing around visiting every tile, that you find those *random guys* are actually dotted around multiple places. It's a perfect level of "you will find it if you look hard enough". Great to see another enjoyer. For me it beats the rest of the ufo50 by a long way. I really hope the team saw enough in it to consider making a deeper standalone, I really think it would develop a big following. The one fix they should add is an ingame note book, I realised too late into my first play through that I really needed to be writing down every curious thing an npc told me!
I hadn’t even considered the mushroom approach! Just another reason to love this game. I think you’re right about the discovery too. Like how a lot of the health upgrades have been scattered all over the world in excess quantities. It isn’t a pixel hunt, but the game is pretty good about leading you to its more substantial content organically and making you feel like it was a chance discovery. I also agree that this is the most logical game for a standalone follow-up. I don’t think they would even need to reinvent the wheel so much as just expand what’s there. Something like the difference between Grow Home and Grow Up, if you’ve played those. Not sure how eager the UFO team are to do that, though. I’d imagine they’ve been staring point-blank at these games for a long while at this point. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Reminds me a lot of my favourite adventure game Fractal Block World, it sorta takes the shrinking concept to the absolute extreme, as literally every speck of dust in the air contains a truly infinite amount of areas. Half of the thing that engages me there is exploring and trying to figure out a world that is incredibly unlike our own, because when you see a flower, that's a massive dungeon, when you see a mote of dust, it's a massive cave system, and in the flower you find dust, in the dust you find flowers, truly recursive. I admit it's not as pretty and charming as mini & max, but it is very cool and still being added onto actively by the developer. I highly recommend you check it out if you still got the itch to shrink and grow.
Finally TH-cam recommended something new and interesting made by someone who can write and edit well. Subscribed. Best of luck. Have you considered making long-form videos? You'd be great at that.
Here from Reddit. Good essay. You seem to know your stuff. However, that makes the omission of Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers all the more conspicuous. In that Capcom classic, you are both small in scale and rely heavily on picking up/throwing items. It’s a more apt comparison than Mario 2, IMO, and I urge you to try it if you haven’t. It’s on Saturday Morning Collection (with Duck Tales) on most modern consoles.
Thanks! Can’t say I’d heard of Rescue Rangers until last month when it came up on the “similar games” thread, long after this video was recorded. I grew up in a house with a Spectrum, an Amiga, and a Bop-It, so some of UFO 50’s clear inspirations sail right over my head. Hopefully the Mario 2 comparison still communicates the mechanical quirks of Mini and Max, even though C&D would have fit so much nicer with the tiny games theme. I’ll be sure to check out the Saturday Morning Collection at some point, though. Seems like I missed some bangers!
Chip and Dale doesn’t really play with size in the same way, and there’s a pretty big difference in scale. I think I say in the video that Mini and Max doesn’t feel like a standard platformer. Chip and Dale falls into the same category as Toy Story 2 / Grounded for the purpose of this video’s narrative. Seems likely it was an influence though!
If Mini and Max had been a real game of the SNES area, it for sure would have been an influential classic! I really hope someone takes this concept and fully expands on it even more!
2 things that sealed mini + max in my heart.
1.
True curiosity freedom, I was discussing the "rat down a hole" mission on reddit. And between three of us, we had all done it in different ways. I had jumped down with a mould shroom, throwing it down before I hit the ground to bounce & negate fall damage, another person had brought a mind control microbe to float down, another had jumped while holding a floater!
In any other "curiosity freedom" game, you would have been shown how to deal with a *fall damage* event, then be shown a huge pit. But in Mini & Max you are shown a huge pit, and it is up to you to work out how to deal with it. It's obviously scary for developers to hand over the reigns like that but it is something that needs to be done more.
2.
The discorvery. When you're on your first run through you will find yourself in some random nook and discover a guy telling you to go somewhere, **somewhere** that is extremely important to the main quest. You feel like you have truly stumbled upon it through your curiosity. It's once you've completed the game and are just messing around visiting every tile, that you find those *random guys* are actually dotted around multiple places. It's a perfect level of "you will find it if you look hard enough".
Great to see another enjoyer. For me it beats the rest of the ufo50 by a long way. I really hope the team saw enough in it to consider making a deeper standalone, I really think it would develop a big following.
The one fix they should add is an ingame note book, I realised too late into my first play through that I really needed to be writing down every curious thing an npc told me!
I hadn’t even considered the mushroom approach! Just another reason to love this game.
I think you’re right about the discovery too. Like how a lot of the health upgrades have been scattered all over the world in excess quantities. It isn’t a pixel hunt, but the game is pretty good about leading you to its more substantial content organically and making you feel like it was a chance discovery.
I also agree that this is the most logical game for a standalone follow-up. I don’t think they would even need to reinvent the wheel so much as just expand what’s there. Something like the difference between Grow Home and Grow Up, if you’ve played those.
Not sure how eager the UFO team are to do that, though. I’d imagine they’ve been staring point-blank at these games for a long while at this point.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Reminds me a lot of my favourite adventure game Fractal Block World, it sorta takes the shrinking concept to the absolute extreme, as literally every speck of dust in the air contains a truly infinite amount of areas. Half of the thing that engages me there is exploring and trying to figure out a world that is incredibly unlike our own, because when you see a flower, that's a massive dungeon, when you see a mote of dust, it's a massive cave system, and in the flower you find dust, in the dust you find flowers, truly recursive. I admit it's not as pretty and charming as mini & max, but it is very cool and still being added onto actively by the developer. I highly recommend you check it out if you still got the itch to shrink and grow.
Amazing recommendation, will be picking this up ASAP. Thank you!
Very wonderfully put, UFO 50 is a masterpiece.
welp you have convinced me to get UFO 50 lol
I had to stop at the spoiler alert, but fantastic video, voice, montage, everything. Keep going! You earned a sub!
I love your accent, and your essay as well. Good job!
great video saw it from the reddit post you made you deserve way more sub's
You’re really good at this, man
underrated channel, great high quality videos
Extremely high quality video and thumbnail, well done!
Finally TH-cam recommended something new and interesting made by someone who can write and edit well. Subscribed. Best of luck.
Have you considered making long-form videos? You'd be great at that.
I just recently watched someone's 30 minutes video on Avianos and now someone made full video on Mini and Max.
Good video about good game 🤝
If you enjoy The Borrowers, I suggest you check out the 1980s cartoon show The Littles.
Here from Reddit.
Good essay. You seem to know your stuff. However, that makes the omission of Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers all the more conspicuous. In that Capcom classic, you are both small in scale and rely heavily on picking up/throwing items. It’s a more apt comparison than Mario 2, IMO, and I urge you to try it if you haven’t. It’s on Saturday Morning Collection (with Duck Tales) on most modern consoles.
The second I saw the game, I was positive it was a re-skin of C&D.
Thanks! Can’t say I’d heard of Rescue Rangers until last month when it came up on the “similar games” thread, long after this video was recorded. I grew up in a house with a Spectrum, an Amiga, and a Bop-It, so some of UFO 50’s clear inspirations sail right over my head.
Hopefully the Mario 2 comparison still communicates the mechanical quirks of Mini and Max, even though C&D would have fit so much nicer with the tiny games theme.
I’ll be sure to check out the Saturday Morning Collection at some point, though. Seems like I missed some bangers!
This one feels so much like a Tom ad Jerry game on NES, eve some graphics are similar :D
Isn't that just Chip and Dale for the NES?
Chip and Dale doesn’t really play with size in the same way, and there’s a pretty big difference in scale. I think I say in the video that Mini and Max doesn’t feel like a standard platformer. Chip and Dale falls into the same category as Toy Story 2 / Grounded for the purpose of this video’s narrative.
Seems likely it was an influence though!
It has 2 less games than Action 52. It stinks.
I double-checked the math and I think you’re right
(1 less 😏)
I need a supraland review from you.....omg please dont tease me like this ;_;
:D
Disappointed. I was expecting tiny Balatro
no goats ...